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Well it turned out to be a pretty good day for Feb on the Cape. It was around 30 to 32 at the start and sunny wound up reaching 38 by 3PM. I was comfortable running in Underarmor cold gear, long sleeve tec-wick shirt, hat, and gloves. I used my new toy (Garmin 305) and set up the Virtual Trainer at my goal pace 6:40. What I noticed within the first few miles was that that watch was shorting each mile by a short distance. Either that or the miles were long. I did care much because If I had anything left the few sec could be made up in the last 6 miles. By about mile 23 it was registering about 45 sec early and the difference at the end was 1:12. Any way, the Virtual trainer was pretty helpful for me otherwise, I didn't look at my time until mile 25, just how far I was forward or behind my Virtual Partner. Except for getting a bit ahead over the first mile I was able to stay on pace and feel very relaxed until mile 16. Between Miles 16 and 19 I gave up 400 ft to my goal pace (about 25 sec). I was trying to wait until mile 20 to surge. However mile 19 was on the a road that runners were heading in opposite direction around mile 11 and was packed. I felt like a salmon swimming upstream. It was an adrenaline boost, and I ran my fasted mile of the Marathon. I felt like I was carrying the momentum in the last 10k, but by mile 21 my hard effort was back to maintaining pace. After mile 22 my legs began to tire and despite increasing cadence and a steadily higher perceived effort my pace slowed to 6:50's. When I hit the 25 mile mark I flipped to my running time which read 2:48:48. I knew that I just needed to keep the legs turning and I could finally break 3hrs. Passed the 26 mile mark in 2:55:45... and at last success! finishing in 2:57:07. Now for the recovery 12oz at a time...

The uncontrollables: Completion and place
The best I can tell I was in about 15 - 16th place at the half way point (Lap 1) when virtually everyone turned into finish the 1/2 Marathon. I could see 2 runners within a few hundred yards. A short time latter on a long straightaway I could see a pack of runners in the distance. This is when I regretted not having my Ipod. I picked up the 2 runners closer to me by mile 14 and was by myself until around 17 when a few stragglers from the distant pack starting falling off pace. After the gantlet (See mile 19 above) that distant pack wasn't so distant anymore. The pack starting to loose members after mile 21 and sometime after mile 24 I had passed the last runner in the group, which by that point was down to 2 running about 30 ft apart. I finished 6th overall, 4th in the 30 - 39 age group, but placed 3rd in AG awards because the winner was in that group as well.